The FBI identified the shooter, who is dead, as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear.

…

Bethel Park is a predominantly white, relatively well-to-do city in the southern reaches of greater Pittsburgh. The site of the rally, Butler, is about an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place.

  • tillary@sh.itjust.works
    5213·
    4 months ago

    Feel like I’m gonna be posting this a lot today. Pennsylvania uses a closed party primary voting system. If you’re a liberal voting in the primaries, it made the most sense to register Republican in Pennsylvania to vote for someone like Nikki Haley if you despise Trump. Don’t want to say this is what happened, just that we shouldn’t jump to false flag conspiracy conclusions right now.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
      243·
      4 months ago

      I remember canvassing for Bernie back in 2016 and I knocked on a few doors of people who said “oh sorry, I switched to Republican to try to block Trump”. This is completely anecdotal evidence but it does happen. It’s rare though.

      Edit: did a touch of cyber stalking… dad is a registered libertarian, mom is a democrat

      • tillary@sh.itjust.works
        92·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, just one of those stupid games we have to play until we get with the times and implement a ranked choice voting system…

    • EnderWiggin@lemmy.world
      16·
      4 months ago

      He was registered back in 2021. Not sure this has much bearing on the 2024 primaries. He could have been a right leaning person who didn’t like Trump. Those people exist. Basically, most libertarians.

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
      151·
      4 months ago

      This is important to know, but at the same time, the majority of registered members in both parties in Pennsylvania voted for the front-runner, and given his youth (20), the primary was his first election involving presidential candidates.

      We need to wait until the facts about him come out. Very little is currently known beyond the party registration and the YouTube gun channel.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
      103·
      4 months ago

      This is the right answer. It is entirely possible and feasible to register as a party you don’t agree with for strategic reasons such as voting in primaries for important state offices etc. Millions of people do this across various states.

    • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      82·
      4 months ago

      And just because he was registered as Republican, doesn’t mean he was necessarily a Trump supporter. After all, those Lincoln Project guys had to come from somewhere.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    335·
    4 months ago

    I guarantee you that MAGA people will claim that he registered as a Republican as part of a big conspiracy that involves Biden personally sending him to kill Trump (which they won’t realize is arguably acceptable unless he is impeached and removed from office according to SCOTUS).

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
      222·
      4 months ago

      Already came out that he donated to a liberal group once. They will latch onto that

    • pyre@lemmy.world
      91·
      4 months ago

      this is speculation but

      disillusioned youth, no prospects, small hope in progressive cause (probably Bernie), gets screwed by the party, gets further disillusioned, sees TFG, thinks it’s good to have an outsider to show these establishment politicians what’s what, registers republican, gets easily reeled in to the far right pipeline, becomes interested in Q stuff, gets obsessed with pedophilia and Epstein, sees recent Epstein revelations about TFG, ends up where too many people end up in the US: full of anger and hate with easy access to guns.

      could be far off, but i wouldn’t be surprised.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
        2·
        4 months ago

        Same zip code and age. Do you have evidence that it is a different person?

        • Pretzilla@lemmy.world
          3·
          4 months ago

          Different zip and city it seems

          Pittsburgh vs New Bethel

          And no middle names, just Thomas Crooks

  • Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml
    134·
    4 months ago

    So, this is 100% speculative rambling at this point, but as a gut feeling on my part that can be proven wrong: I get the feeling it might have been someone from a Republican family, possibly shitty family psychology-wise, registered as Republican for his families sake but got f’d up by the pressure within his personal relationships and the state of the world, who radicalised himself on the internet.

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
      32·
      4 months ago

      “Damn Ashley didn’t want to date me after I told her I believed in Trump… I’ll show him”

      Something like that?

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
    72·
    4 months ago

    Thank goodness Republicans have made it so anyone can get a gun at any time for any reason. /s